De Blasio rival accuses mayor of cozying up to developers

Sal Albanese said hizzoner "turned the city over" to developers

Sal Albanese and Bill de Blasio
Sal Albanese and Bill de Blasio

A former Brooklyn lawmaker who’s running against Bill de Blasio said the mayor “turned the city over to big developers” during the candidates’ first televised debate Wednesday.

Former Brooklyn Councilmember Sal Albanese — who’s accused the industry of “owning” the mayor before — said de Blasio cozied up to developers in order to make good on a promise to build more affordable housing, Crain’s reported. Albanese also brought up the closed investigations into the mayor’s fundraising, including relationships between de Blasio and Jona Rechnitz, founder of JSR Capital, as well as lobbyist James Capalino.

“This guy has been under eight investigations,” said Albanese, who pitched a pied-a-terre tax earlier this month. “Now we know all the deals he was involved in.”

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The U.S. Attorney’s office closed its investigation into the mayor’s relationship with donors this year, after it failed to prove a definite link between donations and political favors.

De Blasio said Albanese’s attacks were inaccurate or irrelevant, and criticized his rival for working in the financial sector since he left the City Council in 1997. De Blasio, who has promised he would release a list of donors before the Sept. 12 primary, pulled back from a pledge to release all donor names and said he would provide a few “examples.” [Crain’s]E.B. Solomont